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Chemistry teacher Anjna Pindoria can usually be found inspiring her students with the fizz and bangs of school science. But this morning, as her pupils arrive, she urges them to remove their shoes and socks and take their place quietly on the mats laid out in the school hall.

For the past six years Pindoria has been offering lower sixth students at The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School in Elstree, Hertfordshire, yoga lessons. Her new intake for the eight-week course are about to get a timely taste of the ancient Indian practice.

Last week, education minister Edward Timpson said during a commons debate that children should be taught Buddhist meditation techniques and yoga in schools to help them “unplug from their online world”. He suggested that lessons taught as part of the PSHE curriculum could enable children “to enjoy good mental health and emotional wellbeing”.

For Pindoria, it’s an exciting proposition. “I definitely think it should be part of the curriculum. I’m so lucky to be in a school that has recognised the benefits of yoga, not only with helping with the academic demands, but social pressures as well. With all the social interaction teenagers have on their mobile phones, it can be hard for them to switch off,” she says.

Pindoria began offering yoga classes in 2009 – the success of these encouraged her to formally qualify as a yoga teacher in 2012 and she now offers classes to the lower sixth, year 10 and teachers – and she hopes to extend the offering to the prep school soon.

Haberdashers’ is far from being the only school to embrace the holistic benefits of yoga (Norton Hill School in Midsomer Norton has had yoga as part of the curriculum since 2004), but for the most part it is offered as an after-school activity, if at all, which makes Pindoria’s classes unusual.

Timetabled into the day, they are part of Haberdashers’ Enrichment and Enhancement programme, which offers everything from cookery to Mandarin for beginners. While the majority of her students today have never tried yoga before, Pindoria’s experience has shown her that by the end of the eight weeks they will demonstrate clear psychological and physical improvements.

“At the start of the course they are looking around the room to see what other people are doing, but by week eight they don’t care who is there. They are more accepting of ideas proposed to them,” she says.

Savasana, the relaxation period that comes at the end of a class, can be challenging in the beginning, with Pindoria finding many students struggle to lie still without fidgeting. However, she says: “Eventually they let go of their inhibitions and find a space where they can just be and understand what it means to be still.”

She believes yoga is the perfect complement to Haberdashers’ academic rigours. “You’re not in competition with anyone else; it’s about you, your mat and the space you are creating within.”

Indeed, it’s not uncommon to hear the sound of snoring boys by the end of the course. “It just shows how they don’t get that chance elsewhere in the day to unwind and relax.”

Seventeen-year-old Luca Ignatius, an aspiring medic, picked yoga in the hope it would help him with his rugby. But just one session in, he can see how it will benefit his psychological wellbeing as well.

“I’ve found it quite relaxing and stress-relieving. It’s a nice activity to do during the day. At the moment studies aren’t too bad, but it will get more stressful towards the end of the year and hopefully the yoga will help with that.”

Sixteen-year-old Joshua Baumring-Gledhill admits that he initially found the stretching aspect challenging. “I think yoga is great for people like me who aren’t good at sports. If it was part of the curriculum people would get a taste for it earlier and get those benefits.”

Pindoria is supported in her work by yogi Charlotta Martinus, who established Teen Yoga in 2004 with the specific aim of training teachers and yoga professionals to work with teenagers. Martinus feels passionately that yoga can combat some of the most common problems among teens, from exposure to technology and lack of sleep to obesity and growth issues.

“Yoga addresses these issues very simply,” says Martinus, herself a mum of two teen boys. “In yoga we literally teach the relaxation response, so the students can access real relaxation whenever they need it.”

Unsurprisingly, Martinus welcomes the idea of making yoga part of the wider curriculum.

“Few children know what true relaxation is; it’s not seeing friends or watching a film. The last time they did something like savasana was probably at nursery when they had naptime, or story time at primary school.”